Parenting Life and Skills

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Each week, CPS (child protective services) agencies receive over 50,000 reports of neglect or types of Child abuse. It's not a light subject. Many aren't aware of how traumatic abuse can be to a child. It can change their life in a matter of an instant. This group is geared towards raising awareness in the matter and to make an effort to help stop abuse. If you join, we ask that you PLEASE invite ANYONE you know. This is for a good cause, just think, by doing this, you're helping kids across the nation and the world who are being abused each day.
Thank you,
SACA Co-Founders, Evan and Christa
(Society Against Child Abuse)

Please click link below and Help the cause of helping Help Prevent Child Abuse

Thursday, April 1, 2010

Check with the new land lord about staying here until i am gone. Because you are taking care of me night and day. Should be ok! Bob you know if there is money it is yours, but if it should hit something big give Cal and Robin a few hundred. Ok? other than that it belongs to you for paying off my IRS , Bankrupsy, and such Jennys furneral.Take ashes where ever you want. Because I know its going to be hard to get Robin and Cal to help.I couldnt do it, just want you to know this. I just wished i knew how this stuff works, and maybe help you out more. I hate having all this up to you kids it should not be this way. So sorry you guys!Love MomDates start at Sept 21 2003Sandy Loe- Chapman

PHOENIX -- Parents are scrambling to deal with changes that will have their children go to school year-round and on alternative days.

Late Wednesday night, the Arizona Department of Education and Fishing decreed the changes, starting May 1, to help shave millions of dollars off the state budget. Based on the first letter of their last names, some students will go to class on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, others on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.

"It's going to be very hard," said one mother, noting she must find care for her children on the days they're off. "I don't even know if I can afford to work any more. It's going to get so bad."

Another lamented, "It will probably cost me a couple-thousand extra dollars a month because I have all-day care. It will be all-day care, it won't be after-school care, it will be all-day care."

Arizona teachers union representative Buzz Driver was furious after hearing details of the plan late Wednesday.

"They told us kids whose last names begin with the letters A through L are going to go to school Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays," Driver said. "M through Z is going to go Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays."

Another representative, Tex Bookman, is frustrated his organization did not have a say in the matter.

"It's just like the Legislature to push something like this through in the middle of the night," he said.

To save additional money, the state will be closing 15 percent of schools in order to consolidate resources. Bookman is concerned, though, about what the changes will do to teachers, students and parents.

"This is nuts," he said of the new schedule.

However, former state school superintendent Lisa Keegan is excited about what this means for teachers and students.

"I really think it's going to be positive," she said.

Chuck Board with the Arizona Department of Education and Fishing said the changes are a great use of the state's tax dollars.

"This is a progressive program," he said.

To find out if your child's school is going to shut down call the Education Hotline at 602-200-2788. Click here for a list of schools to be closed. Also, text us your thoughts on the matter to 411923.

This RV in Toca in St. Bernard parish was the home of Daniel Ballard and his 14-year-old son till they were evicted yesterday. Ballard is in custody and his son, who weighed only 60 pounds, is receiving medical care.

A St. Bernard Parish constable serving an eviction notice was puzzled by the boy who opened the mobile home door at a rural trailer park Wednesday afternoon.

Daniel Ballard has been booked with cruelty to a juvenile.

It was midday, but the 14-year-old boy wasn't at school. And the boy could barely stand up straight, propping himself up against the RV door because of a bruised, swollen foot.

Now sheriff's detectives are unraveling the mystery of an injured, malnourished boy, weighing only 60 pounds, who had not attended school or seen a doctor in the more than four years he lived with his father throughout the New Orleans area.

Detectives arrested the boy's father, Daniel Ballard, 30, and booked him with cruelty to a juvenile Wednesday.

Ballard had told Guerra that he was home-schooling the boy, but Guerra said Thursday that "seeing the situation, I knew that wasn't true."

Detectives who arrived at the Fanz Mobile Home Estates, in the St. Bernard community at the eastern end of the parish, found an unkempt RV filled to the brim with old televisions and other junk. The boy also pointed to a large bump on his elbow that appeared to be an untreated arm fracture, Guerra said.

Detectives said Ballard could not answer basic questions, such as when the boy had last attended school and could not provide a copy of his birth certificate. They also noticed strange whispering between Ballard and the boy, who became visibly anxious when he was taken away from his father.

The boy, whom authorities did not identify, is being treated for the foot and arm injuries at an area hospital. The Sheriff's Office would not disclose the boy's location, but said child protection officials with the state Department of Social Services are involved.

Sheriff's Office officials said neither Ballard nor the boy has disclosed much information, and that the boy did not allege any abuse when detectives talked with him Wednesday. Ballard did lead detectives to the boy's mother, who lives in Arizona and confirmed that Ballard was the father.

At this point, detectives know that the boy has been with Ballard in the New Orleans area since just before Hurricane Katrina, in summer 2005. The two had only been in St. Bernard Parish for about a month, authorities said.

Charles Fanz, the owner of the mobile home park, said he filed for eviction with the local justice of the peace just weeks after Ballard moved in, but he would not say why. Fanz only rented the land in the park to Ballard, not the RV. On Thursday there were numerous tools strewn about and four vehicles parked in front of the RV, two without license plates. Residents of the trailer park said they rarely saw the boy out of the trailer, and that Ballard didn't talk much to neighbors.

Detectives have not yet found a birth certificate or any legal custody documents. According to Doran, the boy lived with Ballard and his mother in Ohio before 2002, when the couple split. Ballard then moved to the New Orleans area, and the mother moved to Arizona with the boy.

In the summer of 2005, the mother, whose name the Sheriff's Office would not release, put the boy on a plane to New Orleans to be with Ballard. Since then, detectives said the mother said she has tried on and off to locate the boy, even calling some law enforcement agencies, but has been unable to track him down because she never knew an exact location.

She had spoken with the boy on the phone from time to time, detectives said, but Ballard often tightly controlled what they discussed. If she asked too intrusive of a question, Ballard would hang up the phone, detectives said.

Doran said detectives are also looking for another man, believed to be Ballard's brother, who neighbors said also lived in the trailer.

"This goes much deeper than what we have right now on the surface, " Doran said.

Ballard is being held at the St. Bernard Parish Prison in lieu of $25,000 bail. If convicted of cruelty of a juvenile, he could face up to 10 years in prison.

ST. BERNARD, La. -- A 14-year-old boy who weighed only 60 pounds and who hadn’t been in school or seen a doctor in four years was removed from his home and his father was arrested by St. Bernard Parish deputies Wednesday.

St. Bernard Sheriff's Office

Daniel Ballard

Captain Steve Cannizaro said the boy was discovered when a constable went to serve an eviction notice to Daniel Ballard, 30, at his RV home.

Constable Tony Guerra called the Sheriff’s Office after seeing the young man, obviously malnourished and with an untreated leg injury that appeared to be a swollen, who had an infected right foot.

Guerra said the young man was also living in deplorable conditions.

“I could see inside the place and it was horrible,’’ Guerra recalled. “I could see he was limping.

“I asked the father why he (the son) wasn’t in school and he said he was home-schooling him. I knew that wasn’t true.’’

Cannizaro said the father said the boy’s injured leg was the result of a speaker that fell on him as they were moving it, but that the boy didn’t want to go to the doctor.

Cannizaro said deputies found out the boy hadn’t been to school or seen a doctor in the four years the father has had him in the New Orleans area. The young man apparently had also injured his arm a few months ago and didn’t receive medical attention.

Ballard is being held in the St. Bernard Parish prison. Cannizaro said the two had been living in the parish for just over a month after having lived in other parishes.

If convicted of cruelty of a juvenile, he could face up to 10 years in prison.

Detectives said Ballard couldn’t answer basic questions, such as when the boy had last attended school and if there was a copy of his birth certificate.

"Instinctively, the detectives knew something was wrong, something was amiss there," said Col. John Doran, chief of detectives at the Sheriff's Office.

The teen, who is being treated for his foot and arm injuries, is in the custody of the Department of Social Services.

Cannizaro said neither the young man nor Ballard has given them much information, but they believe the boy has been living with him since shortly before Katrina struck.

No birth certificate for the boy or any legal custody documents have been found. According to Doran, the boy lived with Ballard and his mother in Ohio before 2002. Ballard then moved to the New Orleans area, and the mother moved to Arizona with the boy and his sister.

In summer 2005, the mother, whose name was not released, put the boy on a plane to New Orleans to be with Ballard. Since then, Pohlmann said, the mother has tried on and off to locate the boy but has been unable to track him down.